The south-central Nebraska town of Bertrand hadn’t seen a newly built house or apartment for 16 years until a fiveplex rose on an old mobile home park in 2024. 

Among the first to live in the $1.1 million rental property was a school teacher, a young manufacturing worker and a retired man whose move there opened up a for-sale dwelling in the rural community of about 750.

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Such movement sparked by new residential development is critical to the survival of towns like Bertrand and others across Nebraska, a state that has made dents but still struggles with a housing shortage. 

For its efforts on the fiveplex — which sparked other economic development — Bertrand was recognized in April by the Nebraska Commission on Housing and Homelessness as one of two 2026 winners of a “Nebraska Affordable Housing Trust Fund Award.” 

The annual award was established in 2018 to highlight organizations and innovative execution of projects that have leveraged state housing trust funds to create quality and affordable housing.

The urban honoree was Habitat for Humanity of Omaha, which was awarded $820,000 to help construct 10 for-sale houses within the larger Bluestem Prairie development in North Omaha. The homes targeted first-time homeowners earning 80% or less of the area’s median income. The Bluestem project revitalized the site of a former condemned and troubled apartment complex.

This year’s awards celebrate projects launched with the help of funds distributed a few years ago by the Nebraska Department of Economic Development.

In the case of Bertrand, the $525,000 state grant to its local housing authority in 2022 helped ignite other development in the ag-focused Phelps County village.  

‘Eye-opener’

Beverly Hansen, an executive officer of the Bertrand Area Community Fund, recalled a housing study that served as the foundation for funding requests for the fiveplex. The study confirmed an urgent need for workforce and family housing. Hansen said it led to “visioning” sessions where school, government and community members discussed housing and other needs.

“It really was an eye-opener,” Hansen said of the forums led by the South Central Economic Development District (SCEDD), a nonprofit that helps promote and facilitate growth in 13 rural Nebraska counties.

Soon an investment team was born: Bertrand Community Builders. Dozens of investors came forward that summer of 2022, primarily to address the lack of housing but also to help attract new business, said Hansen, one of the group’s directors.

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Among the builders group’s first projects was renovating a run-down bungalow. She said the group put in funds plus roughly 2,000 volunteer hours to expand the structure and relocate a garage to the grounds. A second project entailed moving a cabin from Johnson Lake and preparing it for sale. 

“That spurred a lot of activity in town,” Hansen said, including from individuals seeking to renovate and flip homes. She said the investment group bought three more lots to transform.  

The fiveplex Sunset View Villas project, which opened in 2024 with the help of state affordable housing trust funds, was spearheaded by the Bertrand Housing Authority. Executive Director LaDonna Bennett said the agency’s older, existing rental units were full and its waiting list was growing when it turned to area economic development groups, including Phelps County Development Corp. and SCEDD for support.

“We’ve had a lot of phone calls from younger people looking for a place,” Bennett said.

One of the town’s hurdles, she said, was that elderly people had moved out of their homes but families had held onto the vacant properties.

“They’re starting to sell. That’s good,” Bennett said. “Cattle feeders need places for their employees to live.”

Maureen Larsen, director of the Nebraska Department of Economic Development, which administers the affordable housing trust fund, in a statement said there’s been “concerted effort” to increase availability of affordable housing across the state.

Since 1996, the affordable housing trust fund has supported construction or rehab of thousands of homes and assisted nonprofits and local governments in housing efforts, the DED said. The most recent round of grants, announced last September, awarded $9.9 million to 17 housing projects to help build roughly 300 dwellings.

Sunset Villas rose on the former home of an obsolete trailer park with five one-story 950-square-foot units, each with two bedrooms and one bathroom.

“This thoughtful approach demonstrates how small communities can creatively repurpose existing land, stretch limited resources and deliver impactful housing solutions,” DED said in a statement.

New momentum

Hansen said she noticed a different momentum since leaving after college to pursue a banking career elsewhere in Nebraska and in Colorado. Raised on a farm just outside of town, she moved back in 2008 and jumped into the energy.

A Phelps County Development Corp. newsletter noted activity, including a $2.7 million aquatic center that opened in 2022 and renovation of a century-old downtown building with a yoga studio opened by a Denver transplant.

It said Bertrand was trying to attract visitors with new events such as a Hallmark Christmas and New Year’s Eve party, in addition to the longtime annual rodeo.

Among barriers to growth, Hansen said, has been difficulty in recruiting companies and skilled workers to construct in her small hometown. That has created slower movement than she’d like. But she’s heartened that the population has not declined, and she’s noticed some younger people moving back or to town.

She said a relatively new business and trades mentoring program in the public school system, funded with help from a grant from the Bertrand Area Community Fund, aims to keep more young talent in town and in growing business fields.

“I see the town revitalizing,” said Hansen.